Stock m15x upgrade cost and walkthrough.

First of all this is a long read I apologize and I plead to bear with me, thank you in advance, all help would be deeply appreciated. Ughh after weeks of searching and debating with myself whether I would get a m14x r2 m15x or m17x r3-4, obviously I've decided, now comes the real struggle. So I bought this seller refurbished stock everything m15x(not the area 51) and I want to upgrade ughh everything, even though I believe I have sufficient laptop/pc knowledge but I never dealt with this kind of thing before so can someone walk me through, post some guide links, tips, advices basically the information I need to be able to upgrade my cpu, gpu, ram, hdd and sdd, body casing(i got the black one and it has some minute dents and scratches i want it red and looking fresh) replace optical drive with an hdd or ssd, the whole works, I need it, 'cause I play games, I photo edit, video edit, burn cds(my lil business). I want to do all those at once burnin while playing or editing while burning you know, cause with my current laptop ughh one at a time not efficient at all. I want to know what I need, my options for cpu/gpu, and the cost(wouldnt matter that much but its always good to have an idea) I know you guys are wondering why I didnt buy a m14x or m17x, cause first one I cant upgrade gpu an 2nd one too big I travel a lot being a photographer. And wheres the fun in having a done setup when I can have fun tinkering and learning at the same time right? Now I think I've explained myself enough to avoid from you guys throwing questions at me. So let the tutorial begin

 

Before anything, why don't you list your M15x's specs? That will help a whole lot

 

you should have bought the m17x r4 trust me the m15x is about the same size. the m15x is a BIG 15" laptop

 

The M15x is still smaller. The M17X also has the numberpad. I personally don't like the numberpad thing, and am glad I went with a M15x.

 

Love my M17X R3, but the M15X I bought for my brother for his birthday is a wonderful machine, best deal I've ever got on a machine too. Although both machines are about the same size, and the M15X is actually thicker than the M17X, Personally I prefer the style of the M15X and I wish I had got one for myself, but the performance and battery life of my M17X is still far better.

 

You kind of ask for a lot here, not sure if anyone has the time to sit down and write a comprehensive guide.. what I would do if I were you is read through this forum and piece together what information you can get out of it and then ask for specific help. There are disassembly guides, and videos on how to upgrade pretty much every component. Anyhow, here's a place to get started on the chassis:

Dell Alienware M15x Parts

As for the CPU and GPU, best place to look would be ebay. Assuming you live in the US, a 920XM/940XM would cost you somewhere in the ballpark of $300 and a 7970M around $400-500.